Automatic lift-separator.



PATBNTED JAN. 2, 1906. S. W. SINSHBIMER. AUTOMATIC LIFT SEPARATOR.

APPLICATION FILED MAR 7,1904

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AUTOMATIC LlFT -SEPARATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 2, 1906 Application filed March 7, 1904- Serial No.196,789.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SIDNEY W. SINSHEIMER, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at New York, in the county and State of New York, haveinvented an Improvement in Automatic Lift-Separators for Steam-TrapDeliveries, of which the, following description, in connection with theaccompanying drawings, is a specification, like characters on thedrawings representing like parts.

Steam-traps are commonly employed in connection with steam-heating andother systems to conduct the returned water or water of condensationtherefrom to a suitable dischargepoint, frequently a feed-water heater,where it is employed directly or indirectly in connection with thesupplying of the boiler with its feed-water. This returned water isusually under more or less pressure, frequently sufficient to lift thewater from the trap or equivalent device controlling the return to adischarge-point at a level considerably above the same, and while thisis a great convenience and may be used often with great advantage it isa fact, nevertheless, that frequent difliculty is experienced in solifting the water from such trap or equivalent device, owing to theliability of the steam which ordinarily accompanies returned water ingreater or less quantity becoming pocketed in the lift-pipe and not onlyblocking the lift but actually forcing-the water back into or toward thetrap or device supposed to lift it.

My invention comprehends means introduced in or employed in connectionwith a lift or other device such as above referred to and which acts toseparate the steam from the returned water which is to be lifted,leaving substantially no steam to accompany the water and to becomepocketed in the lift-pipe to block the lift or cause return of the waterto I the trap.

one embodiment of my invention, Figure l in diagram shows a systemequipped with means made 1n accordance wlth my invention; Fig.

2, a vertical section of the separator which constitutes the form ormeans herein employed; and Fig. 3, a cross-section on the dotted line 33, Fig. 2.

In the particular embodiment of my invention selected for illustrationherein, referring to the drawings, A typifies any suitable buildingcontaining a circulatory or, it may be, heating system typified at b I),and supplied with steam from any suitable or convenient source S. TheWater of condensation or water returned from this system, whatever itmay be, is received in and fiows through the returnpipe 0 to a usualsteam-trapsuch, for example, as the well-known Bundy trapor other deviceE, adapted to lift said water to the desired discharge-level by means ofthe pressure in the return pipe or system by power or other means. ofdevice or apparatus for so lifting the returned water, the delivery pipethereof (marked 6) in accordance with the embodiment of my inventionhere illustrated enters what I may call a lift-separator f. The water,passing thence by the delivery-pipe thereof (marked g) to the desiredelevation, is there delivered in desired manner, as into a feedwaterheater 7: for the generator.

Referring now particularly to Figs. 2 and 3,theliftseparator f comprisestwo chambers, (marked, respectively, 5 and 6,) the chamber 5 being theentrance-chamber, with its inlet 7 at or near its upper end and itsoutlet-8, preferably of the same area, at or near the lower end andcommunicating thereat with the chamber 6, which is smaller in capacitythan the chamber 5. The outlet from the smaller chamber 6 is indicatedat 9 at or near its upper end.

At each periodic discharge from the steam trap or device E the watertherefrom, ordinarily warmed and heated and carrying with it more orless steam or vapor, enters the larger chamber 5 and by reason of theenlarged capacity thereof immediately expands, reducing its pressurebelow that of the return system and causing the steam to rise into theupper portion of the chamber and the water to gravitate to the bottomthereof, this reduction in pressure being accompanied also by aWVhatever the form further vaporization of what was water on IIO passagethrough the system, and so long as the trap or device E is open ordischarging the pressure from the system isin direct communication withthe interior of the chamber 5 of the lift-separator f and in consequencethereof will act downwardly upon the water therein and force the samethrough the chamber 6 and the pipeg to an elevation, the limit of whichis determined by the pressure on the system Z). In the normal conditionof the system the discharge-pipe from the lift-separator and the chamber6 are filled with water and a part also of the chamber 5. If any steamhas been separated out from the water and not condensed, it will remainpocketed in the top of the chamber 5, and therefore will not interferewith the discharging column of water in the pipe 9. If no steam has beenseparated out from the water or the separated steam has been condensed,the chamber will be completely filled as if it were nothing but asection of pipe in the discharge-pipe of the steam-trap or other liftingdevice.

Whatever may be the conditions and at whichever side the steam-trap orwherever else the lift-separator may be located, it is evident that anysteam which may accompany the water or which is readily vaporized fromthe water will collect in the top of the chamber 5, thus leaving nothingbut water to go forward through the system. Thus it is clear that nosteam as such will go out with the water.

The bottoms of the two chambers 5 and 6 (see Fig. 2) are shown inclined,as at 10, to cause any sediment received into the chambers 5 or 6 togravitate to the bottom, where it may he removed through a bleeder ordischarge-opening at 11.

My invention is not restricted to the particular embodiment orapplication thereof here shown and described for illustrative purposes,but may be varied Within the spirit and scope of the invention heredisclosed.

1 claim- 1. The combination with a circulatory pipe or system of asteam-trap for lifting the returned water and a lift-separatorinterposed in the delivery from said steam-trap and comprisingrelatively large and small connected inlet and outlet chambers for thepurpose described.

2. The combination with a pipe or system of a lifting apparatusconnected with the same and constructed to lift the water therefrom, anda lift separator interposed in the delivery of said apparatus toseparate the steam from the water flowing through said delivery andassist in lifting the returned water.

3. The combination with a pipe or system of a lifting apparatusconnected with the same and constructed to lift the water therefrom, andmeans interposed in a connection of said apparatus to separate the steamfrom the water flowing through said connection and to assist the liftingapparatus in the lifting operation.

4. The described lift-separator comprising relatively immovablechambersconnected at or near their lower ends, the oneserving as aninlet-chamber and having an inlet-opening at its upper end, the otherserving as an outlet-chamber and having an outlet-opening at its lowerend, said inlet-chamber being relatively larger in capacity than saidoutletchamber.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

SIDNEY W. SINSHEIMER.

WVitnesses:

FREDERICK L. EMERY, A. PRESTON GooPER.

